Bardent edged towards the door on the upper level of the lab, aware that the eyes of both the Doctor and Little Mona were upon him. He stopped. Was he... nervous? What was he expecting to find here? Just because they'd defeated him once (and that was simply LUCK) didn't mean they'd be able to NOW... besides, in a way he was more powerful than ever--

--Bardent cracked his neck. He was putting too much thought into this. Staring the door straight-on, he grabbed the handle and shoved it inward.

Meryle turned around and her eyes opened wide, as her brain recognized Bardent's form. "Oh shi--"

A blast of something black and inky struck the elf and ricocheted her off the wall and on to the ground. She made a whimpering noise and stopped moving. Whatever had struck her still clung to the wall and her clothes. It looked very sticky, and steamed without burning.

You runts... I thought you'd have died... you seem to have more Luck than I expected. But you're all dead now, no matter. Bardent said, cooley and calmly, though the heroes could all hear the irritated edge to it.

Bardent raised his hand and, suddenly, it seemed like the tips of his fingers were opening, uncorking themselves and releasing more of the black tar. A batch of it struck the wall beside Trigger, causing him to jump sideways.

While at the same time, from the corner where the bed is, Klaus tried to silently sneak up on the shadow from his flank, careful to not get into Trigger's line of fire or get Bardent's attention.

"Alright.... once chance at this... while he's attention is taken..." Klaus thought to himself, positioning his broadsword behind him for a strong horizontal strike. "One shot to end this, once and for all..."

(I'm not sure about character positions... If he is in position beside the shadow in relation to Trigger, he would charge...)

Trigger's bullet hit dead on--or it would have, had anything been there to hit. As soon as the bullet connected with Bardent's foreheard, Terrance heard a 'schloop' sound--the sound one hears when throwing a large rock into thick, murky bog water--and the bullet sailed through Bardent's skull, leaving a hole in the wall behind him and causing Klaus to halt in shock.

This time it will be different, gun wielder. I was afraid to die, I admit, but reanimation has its benifits, I now see.

Klaus struck Godspyre's shoulder with his sword, slashing through the left blade of his back and causing blood of a duller red to spray across both the young mage and the room. Bardent whirled, catching Klaus in the chin with his dangling appendage, then backed away, firing more of the black slime.

Covering his chest, Klaus stumbled backwards. It felt--and lookedâ€”like warm chocolate, but definitely didnâ€™t smell like it. He wiped off what he could, but he was already feeling woozy. What was it for, other than some sort of crude adhesive?

Bardent grinned. The doctor sought to combine re-deads with chemicals and components to create soldiers. I'm as close to perfection as he's ever going to get.

Trigger looked around carefully. He had a problem now, instead of simply healing any damage he took, Bardent was now capable of simply ignoring it. Being touched by the goop was as good as a knockout blow, guessing from Meryle's condition...he had to get her out of that, who knew what would happen if he didn't...

That was strange, wasn't it? He actually cared what happened to her and the others. he actually BELIEVED they could be trusted to help him deal with this situation. It was almost surreal...him, trusting women and an idiot.

But they had done well, and they had lasted this far...now to go the rest of the way.

Guns were useless against this thing, except as a distraction. The only person who could really drop the hammer onto Bardent would be Zakara...

Meryle groaned to life from her muck-induced haze, and looked at the floor, where she was lying. She heard gunshots. As she lifted her head, she saw Trigger, dashing around the room, a torrent of bullets sailing through the air and into Bardent's fracturing skull.

Bardent's arm swung out, growing as it did, slamming against a wall and exploding into slimey paste as Trigger ducked beneath it, his leg lashing out into Bardent's chest and scraping much of his guts around the room.

From what Meryle could see, Bardent was struggling to adapt to his new physical structure... four hours or whatever they'd be running since he was killed hadn't given him the chance. As she rose to her feet, Klaus grabbed her arm, helping her up. The two stood side to side.

"What's that on your chest, Klaus? What's this all over me, anywa... oh, yuck."

Pulling her knife from her belt, she skipped forward a few steps and tossed it in the air. "Trigger!"

The gun man, now nearly face-to-face with Bardent after all of his dodging, grabbed the blade in midair and shoved it between Bardent's eyes.

AH, you bastar--

Godspyre's position was now one of considerable misfortune... right in front of the open door he had entered through. Without a moment's hesitation, Trigger rammed his frame against Bardent's, sending them both tumbling through the door and over the rail, into the main laboratory...

Growling as they went over the railing, Trigger silently decided: "Next time, I kick him in the gut and send him over. I HAD to go along for the ride, didn't I?"

All he could do now, was adjust the fall as best he could so that Bardent Muck-man would be on the bottom, and maybe, just maybe he could break Trigger's fall. Maybe. Assuming there wasn't anything sharp and pointy down below for them to fall on.

Trigger quietly made another decision as impact became imminent. Double? Malestrom had better be ready to pay TRIPLE after all of THIS.

Ah dammit... don't.... "Trigger!!" Klaus shouted as he watched the pair tip over, and fall off the railing beyond the door. He rushed forward through the door, throwing caution to the wind, and looked down through the railings just as the pair almost impacted... (on what? Continue this, Mr GM... )

There was a 'splurt' noise as the doctor and Mona both ran for cover; and as Trigger closed his eyes, he felt warmth surge around him, then felt himself swinging back up, and sliding into a wall.

From Klaus' view, things were much clearer. As Bardent connected with the floor, it was almost like watching a drop of rain. He produced a splatter effect, and Trigger was pushed by a ripple as far away as he could go, significantly softening his landing.

Bardent was now spread... very thin.

Trigger, however, was in once piece more-or-less. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Oh... poor baby."

Mona stood above him (though not by much), her waxen face and big dark eyes piercing him, trying to destroy his mind. "What's that?" she whispered softly, "Do you want to fight?"

The Mad Doctor, however, wasn't looking at Bardent or Trigger. He was hauling a rather large crossbow from a shelf downstairs, and aiming it at the mage on the railing and his assassin friend.

"Holy ...!" Klaus exclaimed to himself, as the overly huge bolt shattered the stone. "Dammit, that bolt could have gone completely through a man in full armor, blocking with his shield, and through his horse too... and maybe have enough momentum to continue onwards to kill another!"

"At least crossbow shots are hard to reload." Klaus continued to think as he no-so-hurriedly looked left and right for a way down. "I have to close the distance before he can do so... there should be enough time..."

Slowly, Trigger forced himself off the floor, his eyes moving to meet Mona's. He had a tired expression on his face, mixed with malice.

He said to her, "Little girl, you have no idea who you're dealing with"

Trigger had plenty of experience with nonstop action, and it was all flooding into his mind now. He had been shot in the leg before, another time in his upper arm. Thankfully, it hadn't been a shoulder shot...he could lose use of an arm for life from one of those, and he imagined what it would be like to lose all use of one arm for the rest of his life. He imagined that feeling he had had when the house had been burning down around him, and he had been carried out of it by the weight of magic and arms. It was a strange feeling, getting shot multiple times in the back, stranger still once the fireball hits. Strangest of all when you start to regain feeling, sensing all that pain coursing through your body as some Saint of a white mage restores your painful ending life, bringing you back to a life of pain without end.

He COULD take up gardening. Then again, he'd have to learn how. Learn to forget that strange excitement that came from fighting for his life. Learn to forget how much fun it was to be noticed...and feared.

And shot at. Always to be shot at, to be watched, maybe if you get good enough there will be young punks wanting to be "the guy who took down Trigger."

The shots that don't stop and the life that doesn't start. That is the curse of the lone gunman. And he knew that in one singular moment, Mona was sensing every single aspect of it as he poured it through his skull with all the concentration and skill that a lifetime sharpshooter and close-combat specialist could muster.

And in another moment, he would pick his gun up from the floor by the puddle that was Bardent, and shoot Mona. In the face. Leaving him three more shots.

Klaus closed the distance as quickly as possible. The doctor had dropped his boltcaster to the floor in order to reload it, his arms straining as he pulled the lock mechanism back into place. He heard the delightful snap that accompanied the reload and jutted his head up...

...as Klaus rammed into him.

It wasn't intentional, or at least it didn't seem so from an outside perspective. It looked as though Klaus hadn't been able to stop and his leg had simply kept moving, straight into the doctor's face.

There was a noise like a rock breaking glass, and then blood all over the floor. The doctor's goggles were shatted, and he screamed in a particularly horrifying manner.

"MY EYes!!! whaT HAVe you doNE TO ME You fOoL!!?!?"

He rolled across the floor, howling in pain. "I... AUGH!!! I CAN't seE!!! I'm blIND!!!"

~~~

Trigger's gun reached his fingers as though every second of the action had been planned for ages. Sliding off the floor, into the nimble fingers of an expert marksman, and positioned at Mona's head as though that had been the only place it was ever meant to be.

Crack.

The bullet seemed to be slow... everything seemed slow. To Trigger. Was this an effect of Mona's powers? He watched her head twist as the small metal shard met her face, saw the blood, saw the pain... or rather, felt her pain. But how could he feel her pain?

She stood there, wobbling, her left cheek bleeding. "You, you're an expert shot, sir. I almost couldn't read your mind, it moved so fast, like a clock that can never be broken. You knew... exactly what to do."

"I sense much pain in your life, Trigger, sir, and maybe that it why you fight. Is that it? Do you fight to keep others from pain, or simply to keep yourself from pain? Because if it is the latter, then surely you have failed."

Trigger felt his arm bend and felt the cold steel of his own gun pressed against his temple.

"Answer me this one question, please, sir."

There was no soul to this girl, was there? Was she anything more than a devil's ghost? What caused this?

A sparkle caught Trigger's eye. A piece of metal, small and square, embedded in her head, above the right eye and almost entirelly concealed by her hair. Was this, perhaps, the cause for her madness? If he could overcome her powers, form a brick wall around her mind, could he perhaps spare her life instead of taking it?